104 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 S.IX.AUQ. 6.1021. confused with Robert Petty, tapiter i.e., a tapestry or coverlet -weaver an important ; industry in York during the fifteenth ! century, who at his death left a widow, | Alice, who subsequently married Henry i Drayson, alderman of York. These two I Robert Pettys were both free of the city within a year of one another ; they both j held civic offices, and both died in the same year, so that it was almost inevitable that | one should be confused with the other. Whether there were two ^brothers of the same j name, as in the clearly established case of j the two Chambers both named John, is not j known, but it is unlikely. It is possible j that not infrequently twin brothers were | both given the same Christian name. A I similar case, though an imaginary one, | provides the plot for The Comedy of Errors, where the twin brothers Antipholus are ! attended by the two Dromios, another pair j of twins. It is unlikely, however, that the i two Robert Pettys were brothers, as Sir j John Petty in his will speaks of " my | broder Robert " without specifying to j which brother of that name he referred, as I would have been necessary had there been i two, for both the Robert Pettys were alive i at the time. Robert Petty, like his brother j Sir John, lived in Stonegate. They were j on very cordial terms, and Robert evidently '< succeeded to Sir John's business after his ! death in 1508. He also benefited con- j siderably by bequests of his elder brother's personal effects, for in his will Sir John ! bequeathed : To my broder Robert all my toels and scroes [i.e., scrolls ; evidently cartoons on paper rolled j up] and a credill of Normandy glase, and a white crose, a salet wt harnes for ye slevys, a fald of male, a gorget and a hawberd. ... To Robert Petty, my broder, my violett gowne furryd wt shankes. ... I bequeth my best buskyns and a pare duble sooll shoos to Robert Petty. . . . I wille my gowne of foxfur to my brother Robert Petty. . . . To my brother Robert a waw * of glase. [Reg. Test. D. and C. Ebor., ii. 546, printed in Test. Ebor., Surtees Soc., vol. iv., p. 333.] Robert Petty is mentioned in the Fabric Rolls as executing work for J/he Dean and Chapter between the years 1472 and 1510. In the former year he is described as an apprentice, at which time he would be twelve years of age if he was twenty-one when he took up his freedom in 1481. In 1488 he glazed three windows in the east end of the chapel of Finchale Priory, a dependent of the Abbey of Durham, as appears by the following entry in the Account Rolls : 1488. Et solvit Robert Pety de Eboraco glasario pro nova vitriacione cum le sowder et plumbo ac farramentis pro iij fenestris in fine oriental! cancellae ecclesiae de Fynkhall . . . Ixvs. i]d. [Account Rolls of Finchale Priory, Surtees Soc., p. ccclxxxiii.] There can be little doubt that he would be the artist employed to execute the portraik of his brother, Sir John, erected in a window in the south transept of the minster after the death of the latter in 1508. One of the two Robert Pettys was one of " the twenty -f our, " i.e., a councillor of the city, in 1510. [York Memorandum Book, Surtees Soc., ed. by Dr. Maud Sellars, ii. 283.] This was most probably Robert Petty, the glass painter, as the " tapiter " had been chamberlain in 1496. Robert Petty died in 1528. He left a will which iinfortunately no longer exists. The memorandum of administration of it is, however, still extant [Reg. D. and C. Ebor. 2, fol. 145], which states : That on Tuesday, viz., the 12th day of May, A.D. 1528, Isabel Petty executrix named in the will of Robert Petty late of Stangait, York, deceased, renounced execution of the said will. And on the same day and year administration of the goods, &c., was granted, to Sir Robert Petty, vicar choral of the church of York, natural son * of the said Robert Petty deceased, as if he had died intestate. Sworn in form of law, &c. JOHN A. KNOWLES.
- The wau, wave, wey, or weigh is defined in
the York Minster Fabric Rolls (Surtees Soc.), 8. a. 1479, as follows : " Willelmo Melrig de Ebor pro uno wawe vitri cont Ix wyspe." The wyspe was evidently 51b. [vide ' N. & Q.', ante, 12S. viii. 324], so that the weigh contained 300lb. According to Ward, Lock and Co.'s ' Penny Ready Rec- koner ' the modern Suffolk wey contains 2561b. and the Sussex wey 3361b. HERALDIC. Mrs. Cope, Finchampstead, would be very glad of any coats of arms not in Burke, Berry, or Papworth for her Heraldic Dictionary.
- According to the ' N.E.D.' the word
" natural " applied to a child meant " legitimate " as opposed to " adopted." It was not employed in the modern sense of " illegitimate " until 1536. I was unaware of this when mentioning Robert Petty, the vicar choral, in my account of the Inglish Family, ante, 12 S. viii. 324, until the Rev. Canon Fowler very kindly pointed this out. The word " natural " as there used by me conveys a sense which is incorrect/'
